Don`t Count On Alcohol To Reduce Heart Disease

I presume you are talking about drinking alcoholic beverages versus water or other types of beverages.

In relation to alcoholic beverages, any question concerning ``safety`` or ``benefits`` must take into account the fact that many people cannot drink any amount of alcoholic beverages without extreme danger to life and limb.

However, there has been increasing interest in the possibility that truly moderate or social drinkers might have less heart disease than people who either drink heavily or who do not drink at all.

The evidence comes from large statistical links between reported drinking habits and overall death rates for heart disease. But more recent analyses of these studies suggest there may be many ``confusing variables`` that disturb the possible linkage between moderate drinking and lower death rates.

The traditional explanation for the possibility that alcohol might decrease the risk of heart disease has been that alcohol might increase levels of ``good`` or high density cholesterol in the blood stream.

However, more recent refinement of our knowledge of good cholesterol suggests that it comes in several forms--and that the form increased by alcohol may not be the form most protective against heart disease.

In short, we really don`t have a good answer to the question of whether or not alcohol decreases the risk for heart disease.

All I can really say is that no one should count on alcoholic beverages to do so--although they may wish to take some comfort from the fact that if they do drink in a moderate and safe fashion, it might, and I stress the word might, help to lower the risk of heart disease.

Dear Dr. Johnson: What is your opinion of injection therapy for the little tiny veins that women so often develop?

Men and women suffer from tiny varicose veins that spread out in spiderlike fashion, hence, their description as ``spider burst veins.``

Injection treatment to ``dry up`` these veins is now well established and usually very effective. There may be complications, however; so it cannot be recommended as a foolproof procedure.

When an individual is so bothered by such veins that it interferes with a desired lifestyle, such treatment is certainly worth consideration. Seek someone who has a good record of success with such injection treatment.

Dear Dr. Johnson: Why are stomach ulcers thought to be more serious than intestinal ulcers?

Ulcers which occur in the stomach--so-called gastric ulcers--have a higher chance of being malignant than do ulcers that occur in the intestine

--so-called duodenal ulcers, which typically occur in the first part of the small intestine known as the duodenum.

In fact, duodenal or intestinal ulcers are virtually never cancerous. Therefore, when a stomach ulcer is discovered, it may be necessary to study it more aggressively--in terms of a direct look through a lighted tube inserted into the stomach--than is the case with a duodenal ulcer.